Report: CB Brian Williams Out For The Season With Injury

by Dave Choate on Oct 19, 2009 12:51 PM EDT in Falcons News

In what qualifies as the worst news of the young season for Falcons fans, Brian Williams has reportedly torn his ACL and will miss the rest of the season.

This is a huge blow to the secondary, because Williams was playing quite well since joining the team before the 2009 season. He was even preventing a touchdown pass when he landed awkwardly and suffered the injury. We'll miss his playmaking ability and veteran savvy in the weeks ahead.

This raises the obvious question of what we're going to do without him. Brent Grimes and Chris Houston have already been getting plenty of snaps, with Grimes playing very well and Houston alternating between doing well and making me want to punch myself in the face. Beyond that, it's Chevis Jackson, who I still like but was out of position on a Bears touchdown pass shortly after Williams left the game, and rookie Chris Owens. Tye Hill has been inactive every week since we traded for him, but I would think that this is going to force the coaching staff to give him a shot at some playing time. Given that the Falcons are a creative bunch, you could also see Thomas DeCoud taking a few snaps at cornerback and having either William "C4" Moore or Antoine Harris fill in a little at free safety. All of these options are on the table, but my guess would be that either Hill or Jackson will get the bulk of his playing time.

The other alternative, of course, is to go out and get somebody. I'm not sure the team wants to part with a high draft pick, but rolling the dice with a guy that can be had for a low round pick is right in Comrade Dimitroff's wheelhouse. There's also free agency, but somehow I don't think there's a lot of impact players languishing in that world. Cornerback Glenn Sharpe could also get a promotion to the active roster, and if this news is confirmed by the team, I'd expect a move no later than mid-week.

Your thoughts on this?

Poll

Will the performance of the secondary suffer without Brian Williams?

Yes, it can't be helped

248 votes

No, everyone else will step up

98 votes

346 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

Well

that sucks

In Dimitroff we trust

by Bonhoffer on Oct 19, 2009 12:56 PM EDT reply actions

Time for Chevis to Step Up

Or time for Tye Hill to learn the play book. One man’s misfortune is another’s opportunity. Williams will be missed, no doubt, but this is the young guys chance to get in there and prove their worth.

by LetsGoFalcons on Oct 19, 2009 1:06 PM EDT up reply actions

A Wally Pipp moment for someone

Don’t know what the free agent pool looks like, but the worst thing to do is panic and overspend on a new player.

by tom slick on Oct 19, 2009 1:09 PM EDT up reply actions

Couldn't agree more

We don’t have any more draft picks to give. No second rounder means we have to hang on to the rest of them.

by LetsGoFalcons on Oct 19, 2009 1:19 PM EDT up reply actions

Tough loss

I’ve got two predictions:
1) It’s going to be Chevis at Nickle (Grimes starting), and…
2) He’s going to be fine.

I feel bad for Brian Williams, but I think this is one position where we have some bodies that can fill in pretty well (I was more worried when we first heard about Peria’s injury). Chevis was fine last year as the Nickle corner. Grimes is having a very good year so far. Hopefully Hill will be ready to contribute something soon. Owens and (possibly) Sharpe fill in at the end of the line. We’ll be OK.

"Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital." - Aaron Levenstein

by orang3b on Oct 19, 2009 1:23 PM EDT reply actions

This is terrible, horrible, no good, very bad news

And that is an understatement. I think this might be worse than the Jerry injury, and I thought that one was apocalyptically bad. At least we still had a strong defensive line in general, and moving Anderson inside has made a bad situation much better. Here, barring the Tye Hill Redemption from taking place, we’ve got issues. Houston and Grimes still manage to get good position regularly, then fully and completely waste it by NEVER TURNING AROUND!!! They haven’t earned my faith to be able to shoulder the load. Williams was playing great. Chicago barely looked his way all last night. Ugh. This is really bad.

Driving the "Fire Willie Martinez" bandwagon since 2006

by SG Standard on Oct 19, 2009 1:27 PM EDT reply actions

haha, we have a point-counterpoint going on here

by LetsGoFalcons on Oct 19, 2009 1:37 PM EDT reply actions

Options

First off, best wishes for Brian Williams. I hope his surgery and rehab go great so he can come back next year. He will be sorely missed.

Our secondary has been lit up this year when we face good quarterbacks, even with Brian Williams in there. And there are a lot of quarterbacks playing very well this year. Plus we are in a division with Drew Brees. We need improvement at the CB spot quickly and the only way to get it is to go outside the organization. Unfortunately, good cover corners are highly sought after and I don’t anticipate many teams parting with them if they have them. And if we have no draft picks to give, that would mean we would have to trade for a good cornerback or at least one better than the ones we have now. We don’t have the depth to do that at any position on the field, so I think we will have to make do with what we’ve got. I believe our corners have the talent but not the confidence. That is why they are not turning around. They are afraid to. Hopefully the coaches can get them going.

BTW, if I was going to trade, it would be one of our runners behind Turner. Norwood, or Snelling maybe enough enticement to separate a team from one of their good cornerbacks.

by Hi-flyer on Oct 19, 2009 1:43 PM EDT reply actions

Brutal loss...

I think every attempt must be made for a trade…though that is not likely to happen as Hi-flyer pointed out. My first thoughts are that the Saints games will be big losses without Williams, however, it seems defeating Brees and Co. is more predicated on getting pressure from the DL than anything.

by Falcons_Fan on Oct 19, 2009 1:57 PM EDT reply actions

Chances of Miles Austin having another once in a lifetime game just went up...

But I feel for your loss, that sucks. Although we are definitely going to take advantage of it.

by quincyyyyy on Oct 19, 2009 2:19 PM EDT reply actions

Simply by definition

I don’t think we’ll be seeing another once in a lifetime game from him.

Is comments like this what we get to look forward to all week?

"Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital." - Aaron Levenstein

by orang3b on Oct 19, 2009 2:25 PM EDT up reply actions

Haha

Nice one, but back to Williams. This is most definitely a bad loss for us. Williams was playing like a new man after leaving that abyss in Jacksonville and has been a major factor in some very key plays thus far. Those may or may not have been partly resulting from luck but I have to think that some level of skill was involved and thus will not be easily replicated by whoever steps in to fill his spot.

However, I also don’t believe it’s a situation that requires us hitting the panic button and overpaying for anyone, either through free agency or a trade. First, there’s not much in the open market that would be able to jump right in and replace Williams. Secondly, I don’t see losing more draft picks for someone that would require a week or two to learn the system when it’s somewhat evident that we need those picks for finding some long term replacements in the secondary anyways. Maybe the best option is to fill in the best available player on our current roster and trust their talent to see them through.

The pass rush is getting better with each game so we might be able to cover the secondary’s weaknesses more as the season progresses. Last night we only gave up 300 to Cutler, which on most nights should be considered a win for the D. Plus, if the offense can ever get some consistency, we may not be worrying much about the D in the end.

"This is America, if we can’t self-righteously look down on others and blame them for our faults, the commies win."-----Cormican on Bleeding Green Nation w/r/t fans overreacting to the Eagles signing of Michael Vick

by Jesse28 on Oct 19, 2009 3:18 PM EDT up reply actions

Its not like management to panic

I’m sure they will make do without throwing too many players or picks at somebody. Dimitroff has already shown a knack for turning other teams’ castoffs into starters. I, however, am not like management. Therefore, I am in full blown four alarm red alert panic mode.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGHHHHH!!!!

Driving the "Fire Willie Martinez" bandwagon since 2006

by SG Standard on Oct 19, 2009 3:29 PM EDT up reply actions

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!

by Dave Choate on Oct 19, 2009 4:08 PM EDT up reply actions

I still believe in Chevis Jackson

I just hope he believes in himself.

by Dave Choate on Oct 19, 2009 4:06 PM EDT up reply actions

It was suppose to be an oxymoron

it was tongue in cheek

by quincyyyyy on Oct 19, 2009 3:43 PM EDT up reply actions

It's all good, man

Thanks for coming over. Should be a good game this weekend.

by Dave Choate on Oct 19, 2009 4:06 PM EDT up reply actions

yeah this is a pivotal game for us

Our players have been overpreparing and pumping themselves up for this game. Expect the best of what the Dallas Cowboys have to offer.

by quincyyyyy on Oct 19, 2009 4:23 PM EDT up reply actions

No surprise...

I’d expect nothing but the best effort from the Cowboys after a bye week…just as we saw from the Bears…it will be a dog fight!

by Falcons_Fan on Oct 19, 2009 4:46 PM EDT up reply actions

What's that?

Blow or rock?

by Jesse28 on Oct 20, 2009 9:34 AM EDT up reply actions

quincyyyyyy

Sorry for the snark.

I was just grumpy after hearing about Brian Williams and wasn’t ready to hear Cowboy “trash talk”.

"Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital." - Aaron Levenstein

by orang3b on Oct 20, 2009 12:17 PM EDT up reply actions

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

(inhale) ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo(cough)(splutter)(death)

You have opinions. We all do. Some of yours may have to do with the Falcons. Sign up today and share them.

by Adam Schultz on Oct 19, 2009 2:37 PM EDT reply actions

Tough Loss!

i dnt kno exactly wat we will do 2 compensate. Where’s Hill? and it cant be just me… Does anyone else wanna stomp the cowboys!? we will have to get pressure on romo

by DEMBIRDZCUZ! on Oct 19, 2009 2:42 PM EDT reply actions

It will have an effect

…but I wouldn’t panic. Williams is definitely one of our better players in the secondary, but like some other people have mentioned, Dimitroff is likely to shift some players around to make up for the loss fairly effectively like he did with the D-line when Jerry went out. If they pick up a new player for the position, it’ll probably be an underused talent from another team that’s already stacked at the position, sort of similar to how it was with Turner last year.

by Mountvillainy on Oct 19, 2009 3:43 PM EDT reply actions

Our scheme

will make it work.

"There were far too many penalties on both sides of the football," said Coach Smith. "Some things that we'll have to address and I can assure you we will."

by Pregame with Pabst on Oct 19, 2009 4:08 PM EDT reply actions

I am worried, but not throwing in the towel

Remember how worried we were when we lost Jerry for the year. Smitty moved JA to the inside and we seemed to do fine against the run these past two weeks. So with Decoud stepping up and now I see Grimes doing well. I really think the coaches will make the right adjustments and we should just keep steam rolling ahead. Injuries are part of the game and the thing that will put us ahead of other teams is how we adjust to the injuries. Keep your head up guys because thats where are Falcons are flying.

by Chaos7 on Oct 19, 2009 5:17 PM EDT reply actions

Poor Dimitroff

he’s not getting any rest this season. Every time the personnel looks to be golden someone else goes down with an injury. I’m just glad we’ve got a GM with his scouting expertise.

by orion12 on Oct 19, 2009 5:21 PM EDT reply actions

eh

Look, this obviously isn’t great news, but when i read it i wasn’t horrified. Williams is a solid player, but not irreplacable. I think it was a great move by Dimitroff to bring him in as he’s played the position well, but it’s not like he came in and was just this incredibly dominant player who made our secondary amazing. He was a stabilizing force, but i think we have others on our team who can fill in.

by cheshire falcon on Oct 19, 2009 5:23 PM EDT reply actions

no, its not devastating by itself

I just hope this isn’t a trend. I mean we’re down 2 starters on defense and only 5 games into the season. At this rate half the defense would be lost by the end of the year.

by zooker on Oct 19, 2009 5:38 PM EDT up reply actions

that i would agree with...

teams to get the injury bug and it just doesn’t go away. i’m hoping the Saints get it soon… they’ve been WAY too fortunate this season.

by cheshire falcon on Oct 19, 2009 7:08 PM EDT up reply actions

Off Topic and Already Posted But In Case You Missed It

One of the best hustling plays I’ve ever seen by a Defensive Lineman occurred when Chicago was on its own 8 yard line in the 4th Quarter. Go to NFL.com and watch the third highlight film, "Wk 6: Jay Cutler Highlights," and look for the play at about the 3:11 point, 9:48 left in the game. It’s the play where Cutler scrambled for 30+ yards.

John Abraham almost had a sack at the 2 yard line, went to the ground thereby spotting Cutler a 10 yard running head start, got up and chased Cutler, finally catching him and tackled him at the sideline around the Chicago 40.

It was one heck of a play by Abe and was really a great highlight that deserves to be noted.

by striped shirt on Oct 19, 2009 5:37 PM EDT reply actions

Excuse me, but didn't you use to be Chris McAllister the pro bowl cb for the Ravens?

by epbdl on Oct 19, 2009 5:48 PM EDT reply actions

Our guys will fill in...

it will take a while to adjust the defense to compensate for the moving of players around but we’ll be fine by the end of the season, before the playoffs start anyways. You can see all our young secondary guys getting a little bit better and better each week. I wish we could trade for a shutdown corner, but nobody wants to trade theirs and we really don’t have the picks to trade away.
GO GET CHAMP BAILEY!!

LETS GO FALCONS!!
L-DAWG

by ATLsince1972 on Oct 19, 2009 6:09 PM EDT reply actions

I would trade almost anybody for Champ

Ryan would be the only one that I would balk at. Other than that, everyone would be fair game.

Driving the "Fire Willie Martinez" bandwagon since 2006

by SG Standard on Oct 19, 2009 6:59 PM EDT up reply actions

I love Champ

But age is beginning to be a concern. There’s a lot of guys I would not trade straight up for Champ.

by Dave Choate on Oct 19, 2009 7:27 PM EDT up reply actions

I got a feeling Mr. Dimitroff

is going to try and work out some kind of deal to get a veteran CB. There are a lot of good corners out there on bad teams that their team may be willing to trade since their seasons are pretty much over already. Why not trade away a veteran CB in the last year of his contract so their team gets something back instead of the player just walking at the end of the season. We may not have the draft picks to trade but I’m sure we can put together some kind of package deal with a draft pick or 2 late round picks along with a player in the deal. Teams that are 0-6 or 1-5 would be willing to trade away a good CB for some extra picks, maybe even trade away a 2011 draft pick in the deal.??
What do you guys think?
I’ll check out some rosters and see what we might be able to get out there for much of nothing and get back to you guys.

LETS GO FALCONS!!
L-DAWG

by ATLsince1972 on Oct 19, 2009 8:39 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

Sounds great, man

Feel free to toss up a FanPost when you’ve got some ideas. I’ll definitely give it a read.

by Dave Choate on Oct 19, 2009 8:40 PM EDT up reply actions

Tennessee Titans

have some pro-bowl corners, and i think their season is pretty much done by now. Though after the Pats blew them out on sunday, I’m not really sure how good those corners are…

by orion12 on Oct 19, 2009 9:00 PM EDT up reply actions

HERE'S JUST A FEW POSSIBLE GUYS WE COULD TRADE FOR....

TITANS- Micheal Griffin(2.582M), 29 tackles, 1 forced fumble OR Nick Harper (2.005M), 38T
Buffalo – Terrance Mcgee(3.35M), 26T, 3 passes defended
Rams – Oshiomogho Atogwe(2.02M) 40T,4 sacks, 1int
bucs- Ronde Barber(3.652M), 27T,1 sack,1 forced fumble OR Will Allen(1.579M) 17T
lions -Anthony Henry(3.605M), 28T, 1Int,5 Passes def.

Now granted these guys salaries are in the millions of dollars for this season, and I am not sure just when their contracts expire, but this is just a list of CB’s on these sorry teams that I think our Falcons could definitely use this season. My #1 on this list would be Atogwe of the Rams followed by Ronde Barber of the Bucs.
What do you guys think and are their anymore out there you can think of? Prefferably with a salary under 1 million – very hard to find that low of a salary and yet has experience and stats to back it up with!!
Let me know what you think guys!!
LETS GO FALCONS!!
L-DAWG

by ATLsince1972 on Oct 20, 2009 1:54 AM EDT up reply actions

Not all CBs

Micheal Griffin and Oshiomogho Atogwe are both safeties.

Ronde Barber should no longer be in the league.

Only one i would think about would be Terrance McGee, but i think we’re sticking with what we got.

"There were far too many penalties on both sides of the football," said Coach Smith. "Some things that we'll have to address and I can assure you we will."

by Pregame with Pabst on Oct 20, 2009 2:22 PM EDT up reply actions

I think the biggest issue right now

Is what this does to us for next week. In the long term, I think all our young corners will continue to grow and we’ll be fine. In the here and now, though, there’s a real possibility that guys like Chevis Jackson are going to be a little out of their element against the Cowboys, which could make a tough defensive matchup a little tougher.

by Dave Choate on Oct 19, 2009 6:27 PM EDT reply actions

Mike Smith is taking the training wheels off of Tye Hill

According to John Manasso.

Interestingly enough, Hill’s position is fairly similar to Foxworth, as Manasso points out. Grimes was the starter at CB last year until he got hurt and Foxworth took his spot. They worked Foxworth in slowly, seemingly like they’ve done for Hill. Hill may not be Foxworth, but perhaps we could develop a similar result.

by LetsGoFalcons on Oct 19, 2009 7:25 PM EDT up reply actions

Good

Time to see what he can do.

by Dave Choate on Oct 19, 2009 7:38 PM EDT up reply actions

Step up or die

They stepped up with out Peria, now its time to step up without Williams. In the mean time, give Jenkins his normal gloves back. Pink is a distraction (even if its for a good cause) and maybe he can catch something next week.
And Run TURNER. I was getting pissed when we kept punting it away 1st quarter with Ryan going to the air 90% of the time. RUN TURNER for gains, large and small.

by alexmac77 on Oct 19, 2009 7:22 PM EDT reply actions

three knees is enough!

this is exactly the reason why tye hill was picked up. it’s time to start getting him in there..

Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that. - Bill Shankly

by armchair quarterback on Oct 19, 2009 8:24 PM EDT reply actions